


On the Hook

by lily_zen



Series: Ageless [3]
Category: Monsta X (Band), SISTAR
Genre: Alternate Universe - Actors, Alternate Universe - The Little Mermaid Fusion, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Aromantic, Blunt Discussion of Sex and Sexuality, F/M, Hints of Bad Past Relationships, Light BDSM, Light Dom/sub, Potential for a sequel, Really Just Hints, Slight Stupid Het Guy Logic, Slut-Shaming, Strong Female Characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-28
Updated: 2016-12-28
Packaged: 2018-09-12 18:39:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9084874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lily_zen/pseuds/lily_zen
Summary: Hyunwoo, an actor rising up in the ranks of the theater quickly, finds himself fascinated by the supporting female lead in his latest musical. Hyorin is an amazing method actor who dominates the stage, but whose true self is hidden from view.





	

On the Hook

 

Fandom: Monsta X/Sistar

Pairing: Shownu/Hyorin

Rating: M

Warnings: language, blunt discussion of sex and sexuality, some slut-shaming, a little bit of stupid het guy logic, aromantic character, Hyorin being unapologetically sexual and amazing

Author: Lily Zen

 

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Notes: Part of the Ageless series. Hyorin is an established actor. Shownu, whom we shall call by his birth name in this, Hyunwoo, is her younger coworker. She’s amazing, he’s enraptured, and oh yeah, she’s aromantic. People are douchebags and don’t understand what that is or how to deal with it.

 

I do want to say that although this story may not have a “happily ever after,” I do believe that aro and ace-spectrum individuals can have healthy relationships that meet their needs. This just may not be that story, not for Hyunwoo.

 

Update: Originally, this was a songfic, but I had to remove the lyrics. Go listen to "Poor Unfortunate Souls" from The Little Mermaid on YT if you wanna get the vibe. Just know that Hyorin is playing the part of Ursula.

 

Disclaimer: I do not own anything represented herein. These characterizations are not meant to besmirch the reputations of those people they portray. This work is not intended for profit.

 

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The oil slick, inky black of the dress caressed her skin as she walked—well, stalked—from one end of the room to the other. There was a roll to her hips, seductive, knowing, that made the fabric part each time she led with her left, showing a long line of tan, supple leg. Her calves looked like they were carved from stone, forced taut by spiked heels.

Her voice as she explained to the wide-eyed girl she herded through the space was surprisingly sweet, easy on the ears. She smiled like her mouth wouldn’t melt butter. It was all lies though; entirely lies. Hyorin would do whatever it took to get what she wanted. She’d play any part. She was an expertly cultivated study in deception.

Hyunwoo watched from stage right, his dark eyes following Hyorin as she dominated the stage. Even though the play was The Little Mermaid, it was hard to tear his eyes away, to look at the little girl they’d found to play the oh-so-innocent Ariel. He should have been getting into character, using this as an opportunity to go method and plumb the depths of Eric’s desire for such a pale, wan creature.

He couldn’t though; he was enraptured by Hyorin, had been since auditions when she’d kicked down the doors to the room and strolled through the rows of empty seating straight to the director. She was totally in character, and had worn head to toe black PVC, a “wand” in hand which she used to slap the director’s callback sheet on the casting table. (It was a riding crop, his brain reminded him pointedly, a little zing of _something_ in his blood.)

Now as he watched her hands with her dagger-sharp nails caress her sides, he couldn’t help but to wonder where she’d got it from.

Backstage, he watched Hyorin slide cold cream over her face, then wipe her lips with tissue. It came away stained a deep violet-red. It looked black on stage under the lights, but with a little hint of something more. It was always hints with Hyorin.

Her eyes met his in the mirror. She grinned as she kept taking off her heavy make-up. “You did well, _Prince Eric_ ,” she drawled, her words muffled by the press of her hands.

“Did I? Really?” Hyunwoo was surprised. Hyorin didn’t seem the type to hand out compliments easily. She was a perfectionist, and he’d often observed her staying later than the rest of the cast to run lines on the stage, her little camera set up on a tripod in the amphitheater seats, the light blinking red as it recorded her for playback.

Barefaced and sweet, that innocent smile curving her full lips again, she turned and met his gaze head-on. “You did, although I think maybe you need to simper a little more after Ariel in the rowboat. After all, that’s the closest they get to fucking before I show up again.”

“You mean kissing,” Hyunwoo laughed, slouched forward with his elbows balanced on his knees, hands hanging between his legs.

He was putting off his own make-up removal. He liked the smell of it; made him feel like he could keep the stage with him a little longer. Frankly, he needed all the good luck he could get, even if it was just superstitious thought.

Tonight was full dress rehearsal; tomorrow was the real deal. The show would open, and everything needed to be perfect. He needed to remember he was falling in love with _Ariel_ , not with Hyorin’s generous curves and her laughing eyes, observing the world sardonically.

Hyorin slipped her hand onto his thigh and squeezed. There was trouble in her gaze when she purred, “Darling, I meant what I said. All this ‘kiss of true love’ nonsense; do you really think Eric could love a girl he met a day ago?”

When Hyunwoo hesitated, Hyorin added in a hushed voice, as though they were sharing conspiracy theories, “No. He doesn’t even know her. All he knows is her body, what he can see; all he feels is desire. That scene in the boat, it’s not about love. He’s thirty seconds away from hiking up her skirts and plowing her in the bottom of that boat. That kiss, that moment needs to hold all of _that_ ; that’s what it’s missing. It’s missing _the heat_.”

Hyunwoo swallowed hard as he stared into Hyorin’s dangerous gaze. There was darkness there, and promise, and need. Then she blinked and pulled away, and he breathed easier because it was gone now, receded like the tide.

 

"What I want from you is _your voice_ ," Hyorin drawled.

Ariel’s voice broke in, high and tense, a candy-coated delight for the ears. “But without my voice how can I—?”

She was picked to be Hyorin’s foil in almost every way, pale and thin and _weak_. Or Hyorin was picked to be _her_ foil, but if she thought like that it would shake her portrayal of the character, make her doubt herself. Ursula was the star of Ursula’s life, _not_ Ariel. So it was with venomous disdain that Hyorin spat the next lyrics in the script, and finished with a disdainful, “Ha!”, flipping her dark curls over her shoulder. There was a wave of applause and whistles that rolled up from the audience and crested over the stage. It was cold comfort because she still had to get through the second half of the song, not to mention the witch’s spell.

That scene was tricky. She’d developed a system for which ingredients she pulled off of the shelf full of props, none too far that she’d mess up her timing, but enough that every move was dramatic, frenetic as the scene reached its climax. Still, the crew couldn’t seem to put the props in the exact same spot each time no matter how she marked them or explained it, so the potential for fucking up was there.

The applause, the approval was cold comfort, but it still tightened her nipples in reaction.

Riding the high of a successful opening night, the cast and crew closed the theater and headed for the club. Hyorin wore bubblegum pink lipstick that looked amazing with her tan and denim short-shorts to show off her fabulous derriere.

At least Hyunwoo assumed that was the purpose. It seemed that Hyorin always had a purpose when she did things. She was an actor through and through.

She came back from the dance floor, giggling and tripping a little on her platform heels to slide into the booth next to him.

“Hyunwoo,” she sing-songed in his ear, “I seem to be missing a drink.”

“That’s your drink,” he laughed, nodding at an empty cosmopolitan, the last little bit of pink caught in the stem.

She gasped, flinging a hand against her forehead. “Unacceptable! My cup runneth dry.” Leaning forward, she pounded on the tabletop, making all the glasses jump. “Bar wench! Bar wench? I demand libations!”

With a hand around the back of her neck, Hyunwoo hauled Hyorin back, tucking her underneath his arm. He waved off an uncertain looking waitress.

“She does not need another drink,” he stated with certainty.

“I do!” Hyorin whined and slumped into his side. She glanced up, her lips a pert, pink pout. “Hyunwoo, Woo-Woo, Hyunnie, I _do_ need another drink.”

“We have shows tomorrow night too,” he reminded her. “Can’t have our sea witch feeling under the weather.”

That seemed to sober her up a bit, though she continued to pout nonverbally with heaving sighs and pleading glances. She may have sipped at his beer when he wasn’t looking too and was too busy chatting with the actor who played Sebastian to stop her.

Hyunwoo practically had to carry a drunk and laughing Hyorin up the stairs to her front door. He kept her propped up on it by slipping a knee between her legs, pinning her tight against the surface so she wouldn’t fall over. That had been a mess on the sidewalk down below. Ursula was going to have a scraped knee tomorrow night.

“What’s your code?” he asked.

Hyorin hummed. “Um, one—no, that’s not it. Seven—wait, no.”

She groaned, wiping her eyes tiredly, smearing glitter and dark eyeliner on the back of her hand.

“What _is_ my code?” she whispered nearly to herself.

“Come on, Rin,” he prodded her as gently as he could, fingers hovering over the keypad. “Car’s running at the road. I can’t lose my ride.”

“You can just—you can stay here,” she grumbled. “Take your pants off. My couch is comfy. So am I. _Pneumatic_ , even.” Hyorin laughed, a dark edge to her words.

“Rin,” Hyunwoo huffed. At some point during the night, he’d become Hyunnie, and she’d become Rin, whispered against each other’s sweat-damp skin on the dance floor. He hadn’t known her before tonight, but now he felt that maybe he was starting to.

“I keep—I keep having to change it,” she grumbled. “Fuckers…fuckers keep coming back, and I don’t know why. It’s like…they just, they don’t _get it_. No means no.”

Reaching up, she slammed her hand against the keypad a few times. The lights flashed urgently in the way that said the code was incorrect.

Hyunwoo got a mouth full of hair as she turned her head slightly to look at the numbers. “Maybe,” she murmured as he spat out her hair spray flavored curls, “Maybe it’s a nine?”

With one black lacquered claw, she pressed the nine.

“Yes,” she hissed under her breath. “That’s it.” Quickly, she pressed in the other three digits.

The lock beeped and she turned the door handle, opening it to the yawning dark beyond.

Spinning awkwardly, she looked up at Hyunwoo. Her make-up was a mess, her breath smelled like booze, but god, she was still so beautiful glancing between the lace of her eyelashes. Hyunwoo’s breath caught in his chest.

“Thanks,” she said, and it was breathy and warm, an invitation. “You sure you—you don’t wanna come in? I wasn’t lying—“

“No, nah,” Hyunwoo stuttered and shook his head. “I, um, gotta go. Get a good night’s rest. For tomorrow.” He was blushing. Goddamnit, he was blushing.

Hyorin giggled. “Alright, Hyunnie, you sleep well. Dream of little mermaids.”

“That, um—“ His eyes skimmed down Hyorin’s body. She slipped her hands over her thighs to warm them, then moved a little bit between. The look on her face as she did it—the look, it was… “That’s not what I’ll be dreaming about,” he finally got out, voice a little raspy and choked.

Her smile was all Ursula as she slid into the darkness. “Okay, Hyunwoo. Okay.”

He practically ran down the steps and back to the car where Sebastian and a couple of the crew were waiting. “Jesus,” he panted, “Jesus.” He slammed the back door shut.

“What took so long?” Sebastian asked.

The look on her face…

“I think…I think Hyorin just hit on me,” Hyunwoo replied with wonder.

Sebastian laughed. “Dude, took you long enough. I can’t believe you didn’t take her up on it. She’s a good fuck.”

“What?” Hyunwoo gaped. “You’ve—?”

“Me? Nah. I’m not her type,” the other actor replied. “She gets around though. She’s aro.”

“Aro?”

The guy shrugged as he pulled away from the curb. “From what I can tell, it’s just a nice way of saying she’s a hoe.”

“You’re weird tonight,” Hyorin said the next night.

It was another club, another night filled with debauchery, only this time Hyorin seemed to be holding it together a little better. She wasn’t drinking as much and seemed to be watching a lot more than participating.

The show had gone well, only a minor mishap when the stage hands were too slow to change out the coral set in Act I for the shore at the beginning of Act II, but Hyunwoo could feel the difference in Hyorin’s mood, or maybe it was the difference in _his_ mood that she was sensing and responding to.

“I’m not,” Hyunwoo said quickly.

“Yeah, you are,” she countered. “You’ve barely talked to me all night.”

It was just the two of them at the tables, and that was because they’d both needed a drink refill. She was right. Hyunwoo had been avoiding her.

“I—“ He hesitated, not sure what to say.

“Look, just be up front about it,” Hyorin shrugged and sucked the cherry off the pick in her drink. “I’m not gonna be mad. I just don’t like people who have beef but don’t say shit to your face. I’d rather just deal with it, honey.”

“Were you…hitting on me last night?” Hyunwoo asked.

“Well, yeah,” Hyorin replied matter-of-factly. “But you didn’t take the bait, and that’s cool. I respect it.” She shrugged. “No harm, no foul.” After a beat where she licked sugar off the rim of her glass, she glanced up at him coquettishly. “Is that what this is all about?”

“No,” he said quickly, too quickly. “No, no, it’s just…”

She raised a dark eyebrow in question. Spit it out, her expression said.

“Seb said you were…”

Understanding blossomed on her visage. “Ah,” Hyorin murmured, nodding almost to herself. She stared down into her drink as though it were the witch’s cauldron on the set, as though it held answers or illumination. Licking her lips, the first sign of true nervousness he’d seen from the confident woman before him, she stated bluntly, “Look, people talk shit about me. I’ve been in the business for a while now, worked my way up from bit parts to where I am now, and in the end it always comes down to the same thing: people say I fucked my way up the chain. I get it; I’m an easy target since I’m aro and I’m open about it.”

Hyorin leaned back in the booth, dragging her hair away from her face in a move that spoke of frustration. “Yes, _of course_ , I’ve fucked other actors. These are the people I spend the most time around, the circles I travel in; it makes _sense_. I’ve never fucked anybody for a leg up in my career though.”

“That’s not,” Hyunwoo hesitated and gulped down his beer, desperate for a distraction. He hadn’t meant to insult her, hadn’t meant to imply… “I didn’t mean anything about you, um, professionally. I just—what’s aro?”

The woman across the booth studied him carefully, her dark eyes searching for something in him. Finally, she sighed and shrugged. “Aromantic,” she explained. “I don’t get involved with people romantically. Like, it just doesn’t happen for me. I’ve dated before, but I’ve never fallen in love. I kinda just think I don’t have _that thing_ , whatever it is that gives people the capacity to. I like to fuck though, and I’m really good at it, and guys…guys get the wrong idea all the time. They think maybe I’m full of shit, or that it’s a trap, like I’m just saying I’m aro so they let their guard down, and then I’ll get my hooks in them and drag them kicking and screaming into a relationship.”

Hyunwoo felt his eyes narrowing as he focused on his beer, sorting out what she was saying in his own head.

Hyorin plowed on, heedless of his processing. “Then they get mad; they get mad when I don’t call, when I don’t text. When I don’t want to hold their hand or hear about their day; I don’t want that. I don’t have the time or the inclination to be anybody’s _bae_ , and I decided a couple years ago, when I really got serious about my career, that I just wasn’t going to do it anymore. I wasn’t going to pretend to feel shit for people that I didn’t.”

“So you just wanted—“ Hyunwoo blushed hard, a sunset flush beneath his golden skin that he knew made him look stupid as fuck. He couldn’t bring himself to say it though.

“I just wanted to fuck you,” Hyorin said and shrugged unapologetically. “Sorry that wasn’t clear. I think you’re hot though, and potentially not an asshole who’s going to make me change my door code again. But if you don’t want that, it’s chill. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable or make the work situation weird.”

“I, um,” Hyunwoo stuttered, and this time it was him licking his lips nervously, wishing briefly that they tasted of the sugar on her glass. “Lemme think about it.”

The lighting at Hyorin’s place was a muted, yellow glow. She lit candles after she kicked her shoes off at the door, moving through the space quickly with a match in her fingertips. It seemed like a well-choreographed routine.

“Don’t get the wrong idea,” she laughed at Hyunwoo’s face, “I just like candles. Makes the place smell good.”

Her hand as she took Hyunwoo’s in it to lead him to the bedroom was soft and warm, a stark contrast to the cold-blooded creature she played on stage. Her kisses were warm too, and as sweet as he’d feared; addictive, even.

Hyorin occupied his thoughts during the day, during the stage, and she shouldn’t. He understood now how stupid men like himself could get angry at her, get confused. She was his friend back stage, his friend when they went out, even his friend when they were chilling on her sofa watching reruns of The Real Housewives of New Jersey, but the sex, god, the sex was amazing, and for a heterosexual dumbass it was a little difficult sometimes to separate the sex from the friendship. He had to work at it, remind himself that Hyorin in her pajamas with her hair pulled back was not his fucking girlfriend, she was just his friend just his friend just his friend. 

Hyunwoo was fighting against falling in love with Hyorin. It was just too tragic and unfair, because she would never love him back.

 

FIN

 


End file.
